Poll Shows US Less Divided on Immigration Than Congress

(CN) — With the federal government partially shut down due to bickering over immigration policies, a new Pew Research Center poll shows that 74 percent of Americans favor granting permanent legal status to Dreamers, who were brought to the United States as children, and 60 percent oppose the Trump administration’s plan to “substantially expand the wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.”

The telephone poll of 1,503 adults was taken from Jan. 10 to 15 and the results were released Friday. Pew said it had a 95 percent confidence level in the results, but did not release a margin of error.

Not surprisingly, results varied widely between Democrats and Republicans. Ninety-two percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents favored granting permanent residency to people who were brought to the United States as children.

Fifty percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents favor it, and 40 percent oppose it, according to the Pew report.

Nearly 700,000 young people are protected by DACA status, which the Trump administration tried to terminate in September last year. A federal judge in California, however, reinstated the enrollment process this month.

“Especially to people who were brought over here as children, this is the only country they remember. They feel this is their home,” said Judy Phillips, a Justice Department-accredited representative who helps immigrants in Colorado work through the citizenship process. “I will tell you, most of the people I work with have never been back to their parent’s country.”

The federal government partially shut down over the weekend due to Congress’s inability to pass a spending bill, even a temporary one. Democrats demand resolution, a promise, or a plan to protect the 700,000 Dreamers, and their children, from deportation. Republicans have refused.

“We will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands,” the Trump administration said in a statement attributed to the White House — though DACA recipients actually have lawful status.

“Individuals who have some interaction point with immigrants tend to have different views,” said Jamie Torres, director of Denver’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. “When you interact with immigrants, you make it more human than the media or political rhetoric.”